Gladly a 'Have'

For the past fifteen days I have been spending my days at the hospital in my hometown. I am writing this from the same hospital. The first 10 days were spent waiting outside the ICU. And the remaining in a hospital room. The thing with the ICU as we know is you are not allowed inside except during the visiting hours. So everyone who has a family member or friend inside will have to wait outside. They should always have someone available 24/7 who could get medicines, lab tests and other necessary stuff. I do that while anxiously waiting for the recovery.

Since this is a supposedly super-specialty hospital patients with all kinds of ailments visit here. The emergency room is open 24 hours which is not so common in my city. The nearest seats to the ICU are located at the entrance to the hospital in the outside patio. It is not as far as you might think. A hundred feet perhaps.

I get to watch what happens and who comes and goes everyday. There was an accident emergency last week and the guy was rushed in with broken bones and cuts and blood all over. Not a sight one would want to see. Thankfully he is fine now and will recover in time. In the ICU there was a patient admitted because of a heart problem. Came in due to a stroke. His name was Rama something. His brother along with his wife brought him here. They put him on all the necessary equipment and life support etc and looked like he will survive fine. Then there was a old lady named Rani. She was admitted in the ICU last week. I do not know why. Her family was here at the hospital day and night waiting for some good news. Then there is a diabetic patient who went in to a coma and regained consciousness recently. But she cannot recognize anyone. She just stares at you. One of the staff members and her husband(I guess) put her in a wheel chair and take her out for fresh air in the evening. They wheel her around in the front patio where I sit. They keep talking to her hoping she will comprehend something. Occasionally she starts crying out aloud and they try to calm her down. No one knows why she does that. She is still not talking nor recognizing anyone. Yesterday I heard screams from her room. People were trying to keep her awake and not let her drift off into oblivion again. Not sure what happened after that.

In about two weeks we spent close to Rs. 2 lakhs(2,00,000) for the treatment and are still paying by the day. For a middle class employee that is an year's salary. Since there is no or little medical insurance here in India people pay it out of their pockets. Since we are fortunate enough to afford it we are able to do it. But what about the common man. I will tell you what happened.

Rama, the guy who was admitted in the ICU could not afford it any more after 3 days. He was forcefully discharged since they could not pay the bills. His family shifted him to a government hospital where people are treated for free. But they do not have the same equipment nor the space to admit everyone. Don't know what happened to him. The old lady Rani could afford it but the doctors gave up on her saying there is nothing more they can do for her. For a week or more all her family members spent their lives outside the ICU waiting for the inevitable to happen. Yesterday when I reached the hospital they weren't there.

A couple of days ago a middle-aged man came and sat down beside me. I thought he was waiting on someone too. After a while I realized he was mumbling to himself. I looked at him and saw him trembling. He had tears in his eyes. I asked him what happened. Mr. Sai tried to compose himself before telling me his story. His mom was admitted in the hospital a month ago because of some brain ailment. The doctors started a treatment and it was going on. Today the doctors told him that the treatment is not working and her ailment is incurable. Over the last one month, Mr. Sai has scraped out every single penny he had and borrowed more for his mother's treatment. He spent his life's savings on the treatment. Initially the doctors were very hopeful that they can cure his mother. Now they say they cannot do anything. Grief that his mom is not going to survive, frustrated that he cannot do anything about it, angry that doctors did this to him and helpless and broke Mr. Sai did not know what to do. He looked like a man who does not lose his calm in public. Looking at him struggle was so painful I cannot even begin to describe it. A helpless situation where is there is no hope.

Of course there were tons of people who got cured, who came in with pain and left happier and healthier. That's what is noble about doctors. I always believe that the happiness one gets in the relief of pain is the best one. Like with every profession not all doctors are good and not all are bad. I have come across compassionate ones and outright rude ones. Efficient ones and sloppy ones. It's like that in every profession. Here, the hospital's deceit is not so obvious to the normal eye. But believe me it is there. Just cannot be proven easily. What worries me the most is the medical costs and rich-poor divide. What about all those people who cannot afford it. What about people who cannot pay Rs. 10,000 a day? Do they have to accept the inevitable and leave their fate to God. There is no choice, is there?

In the world of Haves and Have Nots I am glad I am a Have. And I am going to generate as many of them as I can.